Friday, July 30, 2010

July 30: Don't Interrupt Me!

It was an extremely hot and humid day and for reasons that I can't quite come up with, I decided it would be a great idea to go for a long bike ride. My definition of a long bike ride, however, tends to be slightly different than most people's (not you, Darren). I started riding and I knew it was the wrong activity right from the beginning of the ride. Sweat immediately began forming on my brow as I peddled down the relatively flat street...

I use Smart Balance buttery spread instead of traditional butter. Why? Because my mom bought it while I was growing up and it's a "healthy substitute" for butter. I don't know the nutritional facts of it and I don't know if I'm defeating its purpose by using more to get any flavor.

...Where was I? Anyway, I was peddling down a flat street and I was already sweating profusely. My helmet was doing nothing to soak up the salty discharge and my eyebrows were already saturated with it. This left nowhere for it to travel but into my eyes. Have you ever had sweat drain into your eyes? It's not comfortable. It stings like...

Why is U the only letter of the alphabet that gets the pleasure of being doubled? It's like, whoever's job it was to come up with twenty-six letters for the English language ran out of ideas toward the end. "This will be S and this will be T. Then U, V, and um, let's see. Let's just double U and and erase the top of part of the middle line; W. Perfect.

...hell! Now not only did I have to worry about passing cars and children playing on the sidewalk, but I had to do it blind! I could barely keep my eyes open long enough to straighten out my bike's course before the perspiration forced me to clench them closed again. The weird thing is that instead of pulling over and wiping my eyes, I just kept riding. Why didn't I think about...

This is pretty irritating isn't it? When people ask me what my biggest pet peeves are, I'm always strapped for ideas. There are so many things that bother and annoy me, but I don't want to scare the person off. I inevitably say something dumb like, "When a vending machine thinks my crisp dollar is too crumpled."

Being interrupted is by far my biggest pet peeve. I hate it and it can instantly change my mood. I've been sent home from work for flipping out on another employee just for interrupting a conversation I was having. It went something like this:

I was explaining to another employee how we were going to break down the table arrangements after a large party when this third guy comes charging at us with his arms flailing in the air. He said something along the lines of, "Hey hey hey, Brandon." I responded with "HEY HEY HEY, JASON! CAN'T YOU SEE I'M TALKING WITH SOMEONE?!" The manager then said, "Brandon get out of here. Go home."

I was livid. Up until the time Jason interrupted me I was in a relatively good mood. There's just something about being forced to cease talking and slamming the breaks on my train of thought that really irks me. When I tell stories to people and they interrupt me with questions regarding the details of the story, I go ballistic. Sometimes I respond by stopping and starring and asking them if they're ready for me to continue and sometimes, if they interrupt me too much, I'll stop the story completely and simply walk away. This last one is my favorite method because it really lets them know how irritated I am with their behavior plus they don't get the end of the story. They'll beg me to continue and they promise they won't interrupt anymore, but I rarely give in.

The most ironic aspect of this whole pet peeve of mine is that I am forced to interrupt people every day for my job. I can't simply approach a table and wait for them to finish talking or I would be waiting there all night. "Are you guys doing alright?" Boom. Done. Next table. I sometimes wonder if I would lose it if a server did that to me, but I have no other choice.

For me, there isn't anything worse than being interrupted. It's not that I want to hear the sound of my own voice, but having to halt my train of thought because of someone else's inconsideration really ticks me off.

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